But paulc, please do do draw any comparisons between the LCS and the 'battlecruiser'.That is downright ludicrouus and shortsighted.Plus most crucially you are 110 years adrift. Man has even been to the Moon since. Apparently.

I should also remind you that the battlecruiser was never termed as such when built.Indomitable, Inflexible and Invincible were armoured cruisers, the first three, with 12" and turbines. Fishers fantantic freesome. Then fearsome.

The LCS brings nothing new to naval warfare. How it measures up in due course will be watched with interest or indifference.

Oh incidentally, the next USS Enterprise, CVN 80, will, in my opinion, which i value, will be the last of these 100,000 ton dinosaurs.And that is far more relevant than any bit part LCS platform.The US lost the plot in the 1970,s.

culverin wrote:But paulc, please do do draw any comparisons between the LCS and the 'battlecruiser'.

I'm cerainly not comparing the ship types, hence the quotation marks - maybe I should have titled it differently - but in reading the article I could not help but think of a parallel:

“These ships are designed for speed,” Rear Admiral Tom Eccles, deputy commander for naval systems engineering at the Naval Sea Systems Command, said at a Surface Navy Association conference in January. “They’re designed to be in the fight and then get out of the fight when it’s required.”

Just like the BC's of old - "speed is armour" - they can catch anything they can beat and can outrun anything they can't.

The ship “is not expected to be survivable in that it is not expected to maintain mission capability after taking a significant hit in a hostile combat environment,” Michael Gilmore, the weapons tester, said in a January report.

That just gives me an image of Indefatigable, Queen Mary, Invincible and Hood - lacking the defences needed to avoid a catastrophe and suffering the consequences.But that's the extent of the comparison.

The LCS is an interesting concept and I have to do more reading on it, but so far it seems they have a lot of kinks to iron out- which I hope they do.